This invention pertains to ticket printers especially adapted for installation in gaming machines, and more particularly, it pertains to a ticket printer having structural and operational features that are convenient to the gaming industry.
Ticket printers are used in the gaming industry to issue tickets to gamblers for insertion in gaming machines as a substitute for coins or paper money, or for redeeming winnings after one or more games. Generally, a printed ticket shows the amount of money won by or issued to a gambler and a code readable by a gaming machine, containing the credit limit allocated to the gambler carrying the ticket.
Examples of ticket printers used in the gaming industry are disclosed in the following documents:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,245, issued on Jan. 2, 1996 to John R. Martin;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,832, issued on Jan. 11, 2000 to Michael Saunders et al.;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,594, issued on Jan. 11, 2000 to Raymond J. Heidel et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,269, issued on Apr. 11, 2000 to James G. Burns et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,326, issued on Aug. 28, 2001 to Michael Saunders.
Although the ticket printers of the prior art deserve undeniable merits, it is believed that there is still a need in the gaming industry for a ticket printer which is easy to maintain, which can reliably dispense tickets with clean edges and which can be programmed using a remote computer.
The present invention provides a ticket printer which is easy to maintain and to refill with blank tickets, which is efficient in separating and delivering tickets from a stack of fan-fold tickets and which is programmable on line via the Internet.
In accordance with one feature of the present invention, there is provided a ticket printer comprising a chassis and a pullout module movably mounted in the chassis. The pullout module has a front end, a rear end and a latch member in an intermediate region thereof. The pullout module also has a shoulder on the rear end thereof and a pair of slots in that shoulder. A printer mechanism is mounted in the pullout module. The printer mechanism has an inlet side facing the rear end, and a delivery side facing the front end. An infeed adapter is mounted on the inlet side. A ticket presenter is mounted on the delivery side. A ticket tray is mounted between the rear end and the infeed adapter for feeding blank tickets into the infeed adapter and the printer mechanism. The ticket tray has a pair of straight tabs extending rearwardly into the aforesaid slots and a clip releasably engaged with the latch member.
The ticket tray is thereby easily removed from the pullout module for the purpose of filling it with a stack of blank tickets or for replacement thereof with a full tray, by releasing the clip from the latch member and sliding the tabs out of the slots.
In another aspect of the present invention, the ticket printer comprises a pair of telescoping slide rails mounted between the pullout module and the chassis, whereby the pullout module is movable relative to the chassis. A control circuit is mounted in the pullout module and a communication circuit is mounted on the chassis. The control circuit is connected to the communication circuit by a ribbon cable. The ribbon cable has a length which is at least twice as long as a convenient elongation extent of the telescoping slide rails. The ribbon cable is affixed to the chassis over a distance of about one half its length and has a sharp bend defining this distance. The other half of the ribbon cable is free to roll over itself following the movement of the pullout module. This arrangement is advantageous for allowing movement of the pullout module relative to the chassis without applying adverse stress on the ribbon cable.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the ticket presenter comprises overlapping upper and lower plates defining a ticket delivery gap there between. A photo sensor is mounted into one of the upper and lower plates and has a light beam extending across the delivery gap. The leading edge of a ticket moving along the delivery gap is detectable by the photo sensor for the purpose of defining the position of that ticket during or prior to printing.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, the delivery gap of the ticket presenter has a curvature therein adjacent the delivery side of the printer mechanism. A mating bulge and cavity pair is formed in the delivery gap adjacent the curvature. A pair of spikes located near the delivery side of the printer mechanism along the curvature point across the delivery gap. The mating bulge and cavity pair has a width which is about one third of the width of the delivery gap. The distance between the spikes and the mating bulge and cavity pair along the curvature is about the same distance as the width of the bulge and cavity pair. Each of these elements and dimensions contributes to the efficient separation of tickets from a continuous strip of fan-fold ticket blanks having perforated tear lines between the tickets.
Yet in a further feature of the present invention there is provided a ticket printer having a micro controller unit and a programmable logic device. A JTAG port is connected to the programmable logic device for allowing the programming of the programmable logic device using a PLD programmer. A communication parallel, serial or USB port is connected to the micro controller unit for allowing the programming of the micro controller unit using a personal computer. A communication link is provided between the micro controller unit and the programmable logic device for programming the programmable logic device through the micro controller unit using a personal computer. This communication link between the micro controller unit and the programmable logic device is advantageous for allowing the programming or reprogramming of the ticket printer from a remote location, such as through the Internet for example.